Los Angeles Dodgers long-time veterans Mookie Betts and Max Muncy chimed in on the catcher Dalton Rushing discourse from his rough outing against the Minnesota Twins.
Rushing called a poor game for superstar Shohei Ohtani during his start on June 24th. Ohtani, who is rarely upset on the baseball field, was visibly frustrated with Rushing.
In the second inning, Ohtani lost trust in Rushing’s game-calling. A catcher calls the game through the PitchCom system, usually, but Ohtani felt he was getting a better read on the hitters than Rushing.
Additionally, Rushing made a mistake by entering two pitches into PitchCom at once during the inning, resulting in a passed ball with the bases loaded and a run scored.
To make matters worse, Rushing disagrees with Ohtani on two challenge calls, both of which the Japanese star was right about.
The Dodgers eventually got out of the inning, but Shohei Ohtani marched straight into the locker room, where Dalton Rushing ended up joining him.
From the third inning on, Ohtani was calling his own game, and he had a good deal of success.
Rushing finds himself in the public crosshairs
However, since things were so public, Rushing became the target for a ton of scrutiny. Now more than a week removed, Betts had Muncy on his podcast to talk about Rushing.
“Well, let’s start by saying Rush is doing an amazing job. But like you said, it does make you appreciate exactly what Will does. And Will was in that same position once. He had to learn,” Muncy said.
“Will had to learn with Kersh, which, honestly, is probably even a little tougher. But I also think that was one of that was good for Will. Now you look at what Rush is doing with Shohei and Yama.
“You just start getting this feel for the game that I think Rush is still learning. Sometimes it’s OK to get away from what the sheet is telling you to call.
“That was the thing that Will learned from calling Kershaw a lot. I mean, what is Kershaw known for? He’s throwing a fastball and a slider, and against a right-handed hitter, that slider is going to be a big weapon.
“There were plenty of times where Will could look at the scouting report and think, ‘Well, we probably shouldn’t throw a slider here because this guy hits sliders.’ But that’s Kersh’s best pitch. That’s what he needs to throw.
“I think that’s how Will learned sometimes it’s OK to go off script and do things that maybe the data says are not what you should do.
“I think that’s one thing that we would agree Rush is learning, especially with Shohei. Shohei wants to throw certain pitches in certain locations, and maybe the data says that’s not the best thing to do.
“But when the pitcher is convicted in doing that, you have to go off what the pitcher wants.”
Rushing’s learning experience
Despite all of the public hand-wringing, the Dodgers stars said they believe this will result in a positive step for Rushing and his career.
“That was really kind of, I feel like, a huge moment for Rush there. When they go down and whatnot, we all go down there. We were just being nosy. I was being nosy, man,” Betts explained.
“I was really just kind of seeing how this was going to play out. What was possibly going to be said? I think it was a good growing moment.”
